Work underway in Marsh Creek State Park

From an Article by Joe Brandt, NBC News (Philadelphia), September 11, 2020

More than 8,100 gallons of drilling fluid spilled into Marsh Creek Lake, Chester County, PA, in August of this year.

An natural gas liquids pipeline under construction in Pennsylvania will be rerouted after thousands of gallons of industrial waste spilled into a creek last month.

The PA state Department of Environmental Protection ordered Sunoco to reroute the Mariner East II pipeline and divert it around the Marsh Creek Lake and wetlands, a PA-DEP news release says.

In August, more than 8,100 gallons of drilling fluid spilled into a tributary of the lake before flowing into the lake itself. Some 33 acres of the lake were closed off from boating and other recreational uses after the spill.

Sunoco has proposed adjusting the pipeline route so it would cross under the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Conestoga Road.

Secretary Patrick McDonnell of the PA-DEP called the spill “yet another instance where Sunoco has blatantly disregarded the citizens and resources of Chester County with careless actions while installing the Mariner East II Pipeline.”

“We will not stand for more of the same,” McDonnell added in the news statement. “An alternate route must be used. The department is holding Sunoco responsible for its unlawful actions and demanding a proper cleanup.”

The department says Sunoco hasn’t turned over plans on how it will remediate the impacts of drilling fluid spills and sinkholes. The company told the state that spills are “readily contained and cleaned up with minimal affect to natural resources.”

Cleanup is still underway with state supervision.

The pipeline runs through Chester and Delaware counties and feeds into the Marcus Hook refinery. Drilling in the booming Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale fields – and shipping natural gas liquids through Mariner East pipelines and Marcus Hook – have helped the U.S. become the world’s leading ethane exporter, the Associated Press reported in 2019.

Marsh Creek State Park is one the most visited state parks and the lake is a key habitat for migrating birds, according to a state document on the pipeline.

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1975 TANKER COLLISION RESULTED IN EXPLOSIONS & FIRE —

NOTE: Some “25 Reported Missing and 2 Dead In Pennsylvania Tanker Wreck,” Multiple Explosions & Fire at Marcus Hook — The New York Times, February 1, 1975

Open Trench Method not acceptable to Chester County

From an Article by Michael P. Rellahan, Daily Local News, Chester County. PA, January 23, 2020

WEST CHESTER — A Chester County Common Pleas Court judge on January 23rd denied the county’s request for an injunction against Sunoco Pipeline to halt construction on the controversial Mariner East 2 project on two county-owned properties after deciding he did not have the authority to decide the case.

Judge Edward Griffith issued a terse ruling after an hour-long hearing involving attorneys from the county and the pipeline company, saying that he did not have “subject matter jurisdiction” to rule on the matter. He issued no explanation, but his decision effectively means that work on the pipeline at the Chester County Library and Chester Valley Trail can start tomorrow.

A spokeswomen for Energy Transfers, Sunoco’s parent company, company Vice President Vicki Anderson Granado, hailed the decision and indicated that work would begin soon.

The county commissioners, who had filed the request for an emergency injunction last week after being notified by Sunoco that work would commence at their properties on Friday, issued the following statement after Griffith’s ruling.

“The county is disappointed with the court’s ruling and is exploring all legal options that remain available to ensure that Sunoco Pipeline LP adheres to the provisions and terms of the easement that Sunoco drafted,” it read.

But since the judge essentially accepted Sunoco’s argument that the case involves permitting questions involving the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and approvals by the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC), neither of which was included in the county’s injunction request. Thus, the county’s attempt to put a stop to the work was flawed and should be rejected.

Lead attorney Robert L. Byer of the Philadelphia law firm of Duane Morris, noted that the PA DEP and the PA PUC both had given permission for the pipeline to be built and that the company’s use of the “open-trench” construction method was justified in order to protect the public water supply.

Louis Kupperman, the attorney from the West Chester law firm of Buckley, Brion, Morris & McGuire, on the other hand, urged Griffith to find that the issue at hand was purely a contract dispute, over which he had authority, between the county and Sunoco involving a provision in the county’s easement that it have a say in what type of construction method is used in the pipeline as it crossed the library and trail property.

In the hearing, Judge Griffith peppered both sides with questions about the legal case, but also about Sunoco’s need to hasten project construction. The company had been granted permission to resume construction by the PA DEP earlier this month after it levied a $30 million fine against its parent company, Energy Transfer Inc. of Texas. “What’s the rush?”

Mariner East goes 23 miles through the heart of Chester County – including the two county-owned plots — and then another 11 miles through western Delaware County. Eventually, the pipeline will transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile liquid natural gases from the state’s Marcellus Shale region to a facility in Marcus Hook. It has drawn severe attacks from local governments, environmental activists, and residents in both counties.

The project has been plagued by spills and runoffs, while work has been halted several times by the state. Pennsylvania also has slapped millions in fines against the company, but has been unable to stop the multi-billion dollar project, which has the support of labor groups, the chamber of commerce and some public officials.

More than 80 years ago, Sunoco LP’s predecessors acquired a pipeline right-of-way over privately owned lands in West Whiteland. The county subsequently purchased portions of the land, and in February 2017, Sunoco sought supplemental easements for the properties.

Those supplemental easements required Sunoco to install its pipelines using road bore method or horizontal directional drilling method, which would not disturb the surface of the property, or use the traditional open-trench method should conditions necessitate it, according to the county.

The easements stated that the open-trench method of construction may not proceed unless Sunoco provided substantial evidence to the county that conditions beyond Sunoco’s reasonable control necessitate the use of the open-trench method, or that Sunoco received written permission from the county, according to the commissioners’ motion.

However, the company has responded that the county’s suit cannot proceed because it does not list as parties to the action either the PA DEP, which issued approval of the construction permits initially and again this month, and the state Public Utilities Commission, which certified the pipeline project as a public service. Those are the agencies that granted approval for the type of construction, and the county cannot counter their decisions, the company attorneys wrote.

“The county’s petition flatly ignores that the permanent easements specifically contemplate the use of the ‘open-trench’ method,” the company’s motion to dismiss the petition for an injunction stated. “They do not require the county’s written consent to the change.”

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Major Ethane Pipeline Seeking Customers

From a Notice by Paul J. Gough, Pittsburgh Business Journal, February 3, 2020

A major pipeline between Washington County (PA) and Ontario, Canada, is seeking customers that would want to ship ethane.

Energy Transfer LP said it had declared open season for the Mariner West pipeline, which connects the MarkWest plant in Houston, PA, to Michigan and near the industrial center of Sarnia, Ontario.

The binding open season solicits customers for a pipeline, where the companies will be guaranteed transportation of their fluids — in this case, natural gas byproduct ethane — to a certain point.

Mariner West is a project of Sunoco Pipeline LP, a division of Energy Transfer. The 395-mile pipeline, which started operations in late 2013, carries Marcellus Shale ethane from Houston, PA, and other points in Pennsylvania to Marysville, Michigan. It has a capacity of 50,000 barrels a day of ethane.

Southeast PA & Mason-Dixon Line (circular arc) to Delaware River

From an Article by Jon Hurdle, NPR StateImpact Penna., April 17, 2018

In March, residents of Chester County’s West Whiteland Township pressed pipeline regulators for answers on Sunoco’s Mariner East construction after it produced sink holes behind some local homes.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public hearing on plans by Sunoco Pipeline to modify its construction of the controversial Mariner East pipelines at two sites in Chester County’s West Whiteland Township.

The DEP said Monday that Sunoco proposes to change its construction method for the pipelines from horizontal directional drilling (HDD) to a conventional bore at one site and from HDD to a combination of conventional bore, open trench and HDD at the other sit

The changes would mean “major modifications” to the company’s permits under the DEP’s Chapter 105 water obstruction and Chapter 102 erosion control regulations, and so require DEP approval after a public hearing, the department said in a statement.

The meeting will be held on April 30 from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm at the EN Peirce Middle School in West Chester. The DEP also extended a public-comment period from April 21 until May 11.

The statement said one of the affected sites is on East Swedesford Road, where the local water utility, Aqua America, has raised concerns about a well at Hillside Drive. The other location is along North Pottstown Pike, where the new work plan has been prompted by hydrogeological analysis and seismic testing, DEP said. Sunoco submitted both plans last October.

The sites are among about 60 along the cross-state pipeline route that have been subject to a court-ordered “re-evaluation” of local geology after a string of drilling-fluid spills.

Sunoco sought the change “to ensure Aqua America’s water supply would not be impacted,” spokesperson Lisa Dillinger wrote in an email. The change would allow construction to continue “in the most efficient manner possible while keeping safety as our first priority.”

In early March, the Public Utility Commission shut down operation of the parallel Mariner East 1 pipeline at Lisa Drive in the township because of concerns that building Mariner East 2 and 2X pipelines through limestone geology might compromise the safety of the existing line. The PUC’s action was triggered by the appearance of sinkholes near two suburban developments.

In August 2017, a state court temporarily halted drilling at nearby Valleyview Drive after HDD punctured an aquifer, causing some private water wells to turn cloudy and leading Sunoco to pay for affected homeowners to be connected to public water.

David Mano, a resident of Valleyview Drive whose well water was affected, said he has no more confidence in the company’s new plans than in the previous construction because both proposals have been made by the same contractor, Tetra Tech.

“They still don’t know what they’re doing,” Mano said, referring to Sunoco. “They are going by Tetra Tech which is the company that did the first evaluation for this area, and they said, ‘It’s OK go ahead and drill.’ You saw what happened with that.

“Now, the same company is saying, ‘You can drill but not so deep,’” he said. “How can we trust them?”

The Middletown Coalition for Community Safety, an anti-pipeline group in neighboring Delaware County, said DEP staff and some 30,000 public commenters had recognized the risks to public safety from a pipeline carrying highly volatile liquids through some of Philadelphia’s densely populated western suburbs when Sunoco’s original plan was approved.

The group said in a statement that it “trusts that this time around, Gov. Wolf and his Department of Environmental Protection will fully consider the public and school safety risks and economic downsides of Sunoco’s ‘major modification’ proposal for the Exton area.”

Tetra Tech said in a letter published on the DEP’s website that the new construction would avoid problematic geology. By using the new installation methods, it said, “SPLP is able to avoid geology which would make a HDD installation difficult while maintaining the avoidance of impacts to resources and sensitive areas.”

The DEP set a three-minute limit for individual speakers at the April 30 hearing, and imposed a limit of one speaker per organization. Speakers were also asked to submit their comments in writing.

Mariner East 2, which has been under construction since February 2017, is scheduled to begin operation by the end of June. Dillinger said the change in construction method, if approved, would not affect that timeline.

When complete, the line will carry ethane, butane and propane some 350 miles from western Pennsylvania to a terminal at Marcus Hook near Philadelphia where most of it will be exported.